January 29, 2010 - The Air Line Pilots Association,
(ALPA) released its aviation safety and security priorities for 2010.
Topping the list are shifting to trust-based aviation security,
improving qualifications and training for pilots, and combating pilot
fatigue.

“ALPA pilots’ dedication and professionalism have
helped to create the foundation for an extraordinarily safe and secure
mode of transportation,” said Capt. John Prater, ALPA’s president. “Even
as our profession has been devastated by drastic cuts in salary, lost or
frozen pensions, and intensifying pressure to work longer hours, ALPA
members have remained resolute in holding paramount the safety of our
passengers, crews, and cargo. Challenges remain, however, as we pursue
ever higher safety and security standards.”

Other priority issues include properly regulating lithium battery
shipments, leveraging safety reporting programs such as the Aviation
Safety Action Program (ASAP) and the Flight Operations Quality Assurance
program (FOQA), modernizing the North American airspace system,
installing secondary cockpit barriers, securing all-cargo flight
operations, and safely integrating unmanned aircraft systems in the
national airspace.

“ALPA remains committed to, and indeed heavily involved in, efforts to
safely improve the capacity and efficiency of the National Airspace
System,” said Capt. Rory Kay, ALPA’s Executive Air Safety Chairman. “We
are also dedicated to ensuring that valuable voluntary safety reporting
systems such as the ASAP and FOQA programs continue to flourish and that
efforts to integrate unmanned aerial systems into our skies are made
without impacting the safety of the NAS.”

ALPA also called for a shift to a trust-based aviation security system
that focuses on intent, rather than on objects. The union calls for a
system that establishes the trustworthiness of each passenger through a
combination of publicly available information, human interaction, and
behavior-pattern recognition. ALPA framed its proposal in a recently
released white paper titled Meeting Today’s Aviation Security Needs: A
Call to Action for a Trust Based Security System.

“Our layered aviation security system is in dire need of major reform,”
said Capt. Robb Powers, ALPA’s National Security Committee Chairman.
“Our proposal focuses on identifying people who pose no threat to
aviation and quickly moving them through a screening process that is
commensurate with the level of trust they have earned. This approach to
aviation security is more sophisticated, more efficient, and
significantly more effective than the current methodology.”

The Association
also called for rapid modernization of flight-time, duty-time, and rest
regulations in the United States
and Canada for airline pilots so that
the rules are based on science and apply equally to all operations,
including domestic, international, and supplemental flying. ALPA pilots
participated in the FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Committee, which completed
its work in September 2009.

“We had hoped that
the new proposed regulation would be out at the end of 2009. It is
important for the remainder of the administrative steps for rulemaking
to be completed, but that needs to happen in a timely manner so that we
have a final rule in place by the end of 2010,” said Capt. Don Wykoff,
ALPA’s Flight Time/Duty Time Committee Chairman. “The members of the
Aviation Rulemaking Committee completed their work in a compressed time
line, and it’s our expectation that the regulators would do the same.”

The Air Line Pilots Association, International, ALPA is the world’s
largest pilots union, is the collective bargaining representative for
over 66,000 pilots of 42 U.S. and Canadian airlines. ALPA was formed in
1931 and is a member of the AFL-CIO and the Canadian Labour Congress.
Its headquarters is located at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, in
Washington, D.C.